Horror films and the mental imagines that stick with us

Do you ever watch a horror movie and the imagine just gets stuck in your brain. It give you an uncomfortable feeling that stays with you. That one movie where you have to watch something else after. Well, I watched Midsommar and I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

This movie did a few things that made me feel uncomfortable with the visuals of everything but on top of that, the ending just stayed with me. It follows a couple and some friends doing some truly messed up things because of a cult.  The movie made you feel powerless for the characters and as they get picked off one by one, it comes to that point where someone does something terrible and that’s when the turning point happens. 

The characters are stripped back of their personality and become emotionally empty and in the end the woman watches the man she use to love become nothing more than ashes in the ground. The camera turns to her face and with a close up she smiles. The movie is built in such a way that the smile seems empty, emotionless and cold. The image burns the screen and the credit roll. 

The movie did its job at being a horror film but it left me with a scar in my mind. Imagine the person you love looking at you with an empty gaze, a cold heart, an empty smile. That is truly haunting of you ask me. 

What makes a good horror movie? Is it something that gets under your skin? Truly a work of art to bring such emotions to the surface, especially with silence acting, no words, just a scene with a single frame and a roller coaster that comes to an end.